Weaning Toddler From Bottle To Sippy Cup
Introduce them to the sippy cup.
Weaning toddler from bottle to sippy cup. If you are exclusively breastfeeding offer the cup at mealtimes with their solid food and don t worry about feeding your baby milk in a sippy cup unless you are specifically trying to wean them from nursing. Let s say it together. Weaning baby from the bottle is a big step and most pediatricians advise starting between 12 and 18 months. You can offer pumped breast milk in the cup initially to make it feel a little more familiar to your little one.
Whether you re right on time or a bit behind schedule it happens we ll walk you through how to transition from a bottle to a sippy cup and never look back. When you ve effectively. Go easy on the nighttime bottle. Continuously tell them they are growing up when using the sippy cup.
Going from a bottle to a cup doesn t mean that you need to stop giving your child breast milk or formula fisher says you can give them both in a sippy cup or cup with a straw. Your baby s got this. An easy way to do this is to use the bottle for water only and to save the good stuff for the sippy cup. A lot of families offer water in a sippy cup right away and that can make the transition tougher she says.
In fact she recommends it. For example you might fill in a cup for the bottle at just one feeding a day then add a second cup the following week. When you start using a sippy cup use it for all liquids including milk right away and then switch to an open cup such as a 2 handled cup as soon as your child can manage it usually before age 2. Fill the cup with formula and feed it to them instead of their bottle.
These steps for weaning from a bottle to a sippy cup also work if you re trying to wean your toddler off breastfeeding and plan to move straight to a sippy cup instead of a bottle. Sippy cups can be used as a transition between bottles and open cups and they can minimize spills unless your toddler unscrews the top. Replace one feed a day with the sippy cup. Start thinking about the transition around 9 months.
This gradual approach works for most babies. The idea is to slowly swap out bottles in favor of cups. Either store or throw out all the bottles and transition to a sippy cup in one day or slowly wean the child over a period of days by replacing a bottle feed with a sippy cup feed every day or so until all the feeds are had out of a sippy cup. Make the sippy cup as appealing to your toddler as possible.
Actively encourage them to say goodbye to their bottle. Bye bye bottle a bitter sweet goodbye.